A Lasagne made with polenta

Polenta Lasagne with Tomato-Mushroom Sauce

from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker, Lynn Alley, Ten Speed Press, 2010.

I still have some indecision over whether vegetarian dishes really need to be made in a slow cooker. With dried pulses I can readily accept the slow cook but with other types of food I am not so sure. Nevertheless I will try more before I finally make up my mind.

Firstly the sauce was made. Now this was predominantly tomatoes, dried porcini mushrooms with onions and garlic. This was slow cooked for 6 hours.

The polenta also was to be cooked in a slow cooker for 6 hours. I have one cooker and could see no reason to cook the polenta in this manner so gave it a normal cook in a saucepan that only took me some 30 minutes.

There were two other mixes to make before the lasagne was to be combined. There was a mozzarella, parsley and basil mix with a few other flavourings. A ricotta and garlic mixture was also required.

The recipe then required that the lasagne be put together in a slow cooker and cooked for another 2 hours. I balked at this and made it in a casserole and placed it in the oven.

The base of the lasagne was polenta. The sauce went over this, then the mozzarella mixture to be topped with spoonfuls of ricotta. Over this went another polenta layer. I added another layer of sauce on top though it was not called for. Parmesan cheese was grated over this.

The result was a rather soft lasagne that was difficult to plate as it tended to fall apart. Whether this was the result of the faster cooking in the oven as opposed to the slow cooker I cannot be sure. My feeling is that either way it would have been somewhat sloppy.

It was tasty, though, and a pleasant variation on the usual lasagne. Would I make it again? No.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔